Ready
by Ellie603
Summary: When Chandler hears the message for Monica from the Morgan Chase Museum about the Bing-Geller wedding, he freaks out and doesn't know what to do. He's Chandler, terrified of commitment Chandler; he can't be ready to marry Monica. But maybe he is after all. A missing moment from "TOW Paul's the Man"


_A/N: This is the first of several Mondler proposal related one-shots I'm currently planning to write, which I'm super excited about. How Chandler got from super freaked out by the phone call from the museum to actually going to ask Monica to marry him has been something I wanted to do for a while, so I'm glad I got to write this. Enjoy!_

_Also - thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed my other little Mondler stories that I've written in the past couple weeks. You all are absolutely wonderful._

_Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own _Friends_, but some dialogue is taken from "TOW Paul's the Man."_

* * *

"You've reached Monica and Chandler's."

Chandler read the paper as he listened to his own voice on the answering machine in he and Monica's apartment.

"If you're listening to this message, we're probably screening."

"Yeah we are," Chandler added out loud to no one as affirmation of the machine's message.

The machine beeped and a woman's voice began speaking. "Hi, this is Hilde from the Morgan Chase Museum, I'm calling for Monica Geller. I want to let her know that there was a cancelation, and if she still interested in having the Bing-Geller wedding at our facility-"

Chandler looked up from his paper, confused, and bolted to the phone, barely hearing the woman on the phone say that the facility "is available coming up on…"

"This is Chandler Bing, this is Chandler Bing," he said loudly into the receiver, still with no idea of what was going on.

"Oh, the groom?" the woman's voice asked from the other end of the line.

"Yes, the groom," Chandler answered gesturing with his hand, but then realized what he had just said. "No, not the groom!" he contradicted, flustered.

"Excuse me?" the woman responded.

Chandler looked around, not actually seeing what was in front of him, his mouth opening wordlessly. "Um," he began speaking into the phone, realizing he needed to say something to this woman. "I… could you repeat what you just said about the museum and the, uh, wedding?" Chandler ran his free hand through his hair. Had Monica really starting making plans for their wedding? Their wedding that Chandler was absolutely not ready for, for several reasons including that he knew absolutely nothing about it.

"Certainly," the woman said. "I'm Hilde from the Morgan Chase Museum. Monica Geller put her name on the waiting list for the Bing-Geller wedding. The spot was originally for about two years from now, but there was a cancelation, and it's possible to move that spot up several months if she'd like. The band the Starlight Magic Seven are also available for the wedding at that new date as well."

"Um, right," Chandler said, still trying to figure out what had happened. _Why would Monica put her name down for our wedding?_ Chandler thought, bewildered. _I haven't asked her. I'm not ready for that. Am I? _Chandler stopped at that thought. _Wait; am I actually_ _ready to marry Monica?_

"Mr. Bing?' Hilde said from the phone.

"Um, yeah?" Chandler said, still thinking and only half paying attention to his phone call.

"Would you like to come down and see the facility today?" she asked.

Chandler thought for a moment. If he was really ready to marry Monica, maybe he should do that. _But who says I _am_ ready for this? _Chandler said to himself, conflicted. "Um, actually can I call you back?" he answered finally.

"Of course," Hilde replied genially and then left him her number and ended the call.

Chandler hung up and immediately collapsed into his chair in the kitchen. He stared at the phone on the end table. How could Monica have done this to him? Was this some sort of not-so-subtle hint that she wanted him to propose soon? Of course she wanted him to propose! This was Monica who had always dreamed of getting married and having babies and all that stuff that freaked Chandler out more than anything.

_The last time you thought she wanted that, you ended up in that huge fight and then went crazy and proposed to her though,_ he reminded himself, _maybe this isn't that big a deal. _But of course it was a big deal! He knew, for a fact, that Monica had put their names down to get married in two years. This time it wasn't all in his head; Monica had _actually_ done this. And she hadn't even told him about, let alone mentioned anything about them getting married anytime recently.

Chandler knew that Monica was always careful not to bring up marriage too often or in too serious a circumstance, especially right after they had almost gotten married in Vegas but had decided to move in together instead. He knew that she thought about them getting married a lot, and he even thought about it himself from time to time. He remembered going to see the Swing Kings with her a little before he moved in to her apartment. He and Monica had been dancing together, and Chandler remembered her smiling up at him as he had realized that this was it: she was the woman he wanted to dance all his dances with. _Hmm, maybe we could get the Swing Kings for the wedding,_ Chandler thought and then jolted himself out of it. They _weren't_ getting married. He just wasn't ready.

He was still staring at the phone, completely unsure of what to do, when Monica opened the door to the apartment several minutes later, a shopping bag in hand.

"Hi honey," she said brightly.

Chandler stood up instantly. He knew he needed to be by himself to think everything over. "See you later." He headed for the door, not looking at his girlfriend.

Monica put her hand on his arm to stop him as he walked past her. "What?" she said, confused. "I brought groceries; I was going to make you dinner."

"Well next time, ask," Chandler replied, his mind still focused solely on the thought of him and Monica getting married. "Or at least wait for me to ask!" He turned and hurried out the door without considering where he was going to go.

When he reached the street, he started walking aimlessly, passing Central Perk, but not stopping because he knew that if Monica came looking for him, the coffee house was one of the first places she would go.

Many blocks from the apartment, Chandler found himself passing a jewelry store. He saw that part of the store's display consisted of glittering diamond rings, and he stopped without thinking to look at them more closely.

As he stared at the rings propped up on pillows and sitting in open velvet covered boxes in the display case, Chandler thought of how happy Monica would be if he gave her one of these, if he asked her to marry him. _Of course I want to spend the rest of my life with her,_ he thought as he looked at the rings._ I love her so much, and she's the one thing I care about most in the world. _He was Chandler, so terrified of commitment that Phoebe the year before had even asked him to scare her then boyfriend Gary away from the idea of moving in with her, but this was different. With Monica, commitment didn't seem so hard. These past two years had been the best of his life by a long shot. He knew, without a doubt, that he had never in his life been happier than he was with Monica. She had been one of people he relied on most for years before they were together, and since then she had become infinitely more important in his life than she had already been.

When Monica broke up with Richard four years before, everyone, Chandler included, had assured her that she would find someone else who was even better for her than Richard was and who would actually want to start a family with her. Chandler knew that he absolutely wasn't ready to have a baby yet, but, somewhere down the road, he could picture it. He and Monica living in a small place outside the city where their kids could learn to ride their bikes. Four perfect kids – a boy, twin girls, and another boy – and a cat with a bell on its collar so they could hear it every time it ran through the little kitty door. Maybe he had been commitment-phobic Chandler before, but a future as wonderful as that was something he suddenly realized he really wanted. As he thought for a moment, though, he decided it all wasn't completely necessary. He didn't need the cat or the house or even the kids. There was only one thing that absolutely had to be a part of his life. All he really needed was Monica.

Chandler lifted his head up, nodding to himself as a smile grew across his face. He took a deep breath. "I'm going to ask Monica to marry me," he said out loud as he stared at the rings in the window. "I'm _actually_ going to ask Monica to marry me."

He walked up the couple steps into the jewelry store and grabbed a ring brochure from one of the counters inside. Stepping back onto the sidewalk as he left, he spotted another store across the street, so he quickly made his way over to it and took another brochure from there.

As he made his way hurriedly back to the apartment, he began to plan his next move. He knew that Hilde's message had been saved on the answering machine and that Monica always listened to phone messages as soon as she got home. He figured it was pretty likely that she had found out that he had heard the message, which meant that she was probably out trying to find him. She had almost certainly already gone to Central Perk, Joey's, and Ross's, which meant she was probably further into the city checking some less likely places. All he needed to do was stop back and quickly call Hilde since he had left her number written down on the pad of paper on the end table beside the phone.

Chandler reached their building and climbed the stairs up to their apartment. He listened at the door for Monica for a moment and then, hearing nothing, opened it and walked inside. He realized he needed to use the bathroom before he called, so he went in and started looking through the ring brochures he had picked up.

He had barely been in the bathroom for fifteen seconds when the door opened suddenly and Phoebe walked in.

"Phoebe!" he said, half surprised and half angry, dropping his brochure on the floor. "You have to knock!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Phoebe responded, looking away from him, "I didn't know you were here!"

"Wait a second," she said, noticing the brochure on the floor. "What's this, Chandler?" She picked it up and almost immediately gasped. "Chandler! Are you getting an engagement ring for Monica?" she almost yelled, looking up at Chandler as a huge smile filled her face.

"Um," Chandler said awkwardly from the toilet, "could we talk about this outside in a minute?"

"Oh," Phoebe said, seeming to realize again where her friend was. "Right." She left the bathroom taking the brochure with her.

Chandler washed his hands and sighed at his reflection in the mirror. Time to face Phoebe.

He had barely opened the door before Phoebe began interrogating him.

"Why are you looking at ring brochures? Are you going to ask Monica to marry you? Does this have anything to do with that phone call from the museum?" She asked one question after another.

"Okay, calm down Pheebs," Chandler said, putting his hand on her arm to try to stop her from asking questions. "This _is_ because of that phone call. It freaked me out, but I thought about it, and I really do want to marry Monica. I'm going to propose."

Phoebe stared at him, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. "Chandler!" she said, her voice full of emotion as she pulled him in for a hug, beaming.

They broke apart, and Chandler smiled, taking the brochures back from his friend. "I'm going to call Hilde back and ask if I can come see the museum now."

Phoebe nodded at him, still smiling widely.

He walked to the phone and dialed quickly.

"Morgan Chase Museum, Hilde speaking."

"Hi Hilde, it's Chandler Bing, we spoke earlier," he said in a voice much calmer than it had been when he had last talked to her.

"Oh yes, Mr. Bing. How can I help you?" Hilde replied.

"Would it be okay if I came over to have a look at facility now?" he asked.

"Of course!" she said. "We have to close in just over an hour, so as long as you can make it here soon, that would be fine."

"Great, thanks. I'll get there as fast as I can." Chandler hung up the phone and turned to Phoebe. "Okay Pheebs, do you know where Monica is?"

Phoebe shook her head. "She came looking for you at the coffee house maybe forty five minutes ago, saying that you were freaked out by the phone call, and then Joey and I ran into her when we were coming back here from his dry cleaners. He's worried too. Something about a guy and a burrito."

Chandler turned his head to the side slightly and narrowed his eyes, confused. "Right…" He shook his head, trying to concentrate. "Okay, wait." His eyes lit up. "This is perfect! Monica thinks that I'm really freaked out by this whole thing, right?"

Phoebe nodded.

"So what if, when I get back from the museum, I act all freaked out and 'Chandler'-y and say that I'm not ready to get married yet, so when I finally do propose it's a huge surprise?" Chandler smiled excitedly, his arms flailing, as he presented his idea to his friend.

Phoebe covered her mouth with her hands quickly in excitement as she started bouncing up and down. "That's such a great idea!" she said, clasping her hands together, still bouncing.

Chandler grinned. "Perfect. Okay, when Monica gets back, just don't tell her I was here if she asks."

Phoebe stopped bouncing and nodded as seriously as she could while smiling. "No problem."

"See you in about an hour," Chandler said, with one last smile to his friend as he stuffed the brochures in his pocket and raced out of the apartment.

Chandler couldn't stop smiling on the short taxi ride to the museum._ I'm going to propose to Monica. I'm going to ask Monica to marry me,_ he said over and over to himself.

He arrived at the museum and quickly found Hilde who showed him all around the areas of the museum that were used for weddings. Chandler could see why Monica had wanted to get married here. The architecture was gorgeous, and he could imagine saying his vows to Monica right under the beautiful arch at one side of the main room, even though Hilde had suggested that the ceremony be held on a different side.

Chandler shook Hilde's hand and told her that he would be in touch sometime soon about the wedding. _I_ do_ have to propose first,_ he said himself, again grinning in the taxi back to the apartment.

As he reached the building and started climbing up the stairs, Chandler did his best to try to act like he was freaked out "I'm not ready to get married" Chandler. He found the task pretty easy in general since he had had so much practice in freaking out about commitment in the past, but the fact that all he wanted to do was smile because not too long from now he was going to be asking the greatest woman in the world to marry him was making things a bit harder.

He paused in front of the door to make sure his face was completely blank, and then he walked into the apartment.

Monica was pacing back and forth behind the couch, but as soon as he shut the door, she rushed toward him, her hands outstretched in a way that was clearly meant to try to calm him down.

"I'm so sorry," she began. "Please stop freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out," Chandler replied in his tone that usually meant he _was _freaking out. "Why would I be freaking out?" He passed her and walked into the living room, gesturing with his hands. "A woman named Hilde called and said we were getting married, but that happens everyday." He added one of his typical Chandler freaking out noises and motioned around his head like his brain was exploding.

"Honey," Monica tried to explain herself, "we were at this beautiful place, and I, I just put our names down for fun. I mean what's the harm in that?"

"Right here!" Chandler pointed to his head and repeated a smaller version of the noise and gesture.

"Chandler, please don't think I was trying to pressure you," Monica insisted. "Phoebe and Rachel just thought that–"

"Phoebe and Rachel!" Chandler interrupted her, acting affronted. "So the people that knew about our wedding before me were you, Phoebe and Rachel, Hilde, and apparently some band called the Starlight Magic Seven, who are available by the way!" Chandler ran his hand down his face. He was pretty impressed with himself at how good a job of being freaked out he was doing. Monica didn't have even the slightest clue that he was fine.

Monica began again. "It was a mistake. Please don't take this to mean anything, because it doesn't."

Chandler stared at her for a moment, letting Monica think that he was considering what she said. "Okay," he replied, finally.

"Really?" she said, clearly very concerned with how much this had apparently upset him. Chandler couldn't help but think about how much he wanted to marry this woman in front of him who cared so much about whether or not he was fine as he prepared for his last effort to impress upon her how not okay with getting married yet he was.

"Yes, if it really doesn't mean anything, because you know that I'm just not ready–"

Monica interrupted his, unbeknownst to her, untrue statement. "I know. I know." She reached out her arms to him.

"Okay." Chandler wrapped his arms around her, thinking of just how surprised she was going to be when he proposed in however long it would take for him to find a ring.

"Alright," she said as she released him, "now I'm gonna go tell Joey that, that you're back. He was really worried about you. You know and that guy that never delivered his burrito?

Chandler suddenly remembered what Phoebe had said earlier about Joey and guy and a burrito.

"He thought there was some sort of connection." Monica left the apartment.

Chandler watched his girlfriend, and hopefully soon-to-be fiancée, close the door as a smile started to grow on his face. She was the love of his life, and soon they'd get to spend the rest of their lives together.

"Hey." Phoebe had come out of their guest room where she had apparently been eavesdropping on their conversation. "Did she buy it?"

Chandler turned around, very glad that Phoebe knew everything. "Totally."

"So did Hilde show you the place?" his friend asked.

"Yeah, it's beautiful," he said, nodding, his voice happy and his smile bright.

"I can't believe you're gonna ask Monica to marry you," Phoebe said, her smile just as big, if not bigger than it had been when he had told her his plan an hour before.

"I know," Chandler replied, tears coming to his eyes as he hugged Phoebe.

This was going to be the most important thing he would ever do. He had found the woman he was meant to spend the rest of his life with, and, finally, he was ready.

He was going to marry Monica.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for reading, and please review!_


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